Friedrich Hayek

Friedrich Hayek (8 May 1899-23 March 1992) was an Austrian political economist and a member of the Austrian School. He was one of the leading liberal thinkers of the twentieth century, supporting classical liberalism.

Biography
Friedrich Hayek was born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary in 1899, and he taught in Vienna until 1933, when he moved to the London School of Economics. In 1938 he acquired British citizenship. In 1950, he became a professor at the University of Chicago, and from 1962 he taught at Freiburg University in Germany. In 1974, he received the Nobel Prize for Economics. In his most famous book, The Road to Serfdom (1944), Hayek warned against the state taking over duties that can be performed by the individual, as this would always have negative and unforeseen side effects. Although he admitted that any civilized society had to live by a given set of rules, he resolutely opposed any degree of state interventionism in the economy, as well as in society. He was one of the most cogent opponents of John Maynard Keynes, and was very influential among liberal thinkers and economists, such as in the new democracies of Eastern Europe. He died in 1992.